


You And Me Against The Whole Entire World

by Akumeoi



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: (yes both), Developing Relationship, Deviates From Canon, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Post-Reveal Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Pre-Reveal Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-10-23
Packaged: 2020-12-28 19:21:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21141899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akumeoi/pseuds/Akumeoi
Summary: Pre-reveal and post-reveal, Adrien and Marinette come to depend on each other for support both publicly and privately. Four snapshots of their developing relationship, and the love that was always waiting to blossom between them.





	You And Me Against The Whole Entire World

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AlexSeanchai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexSeanchai/gifts).

> Or, _Toi Et Moi Contre Le Monde Entier_. 
> 
> Thank you so much to Alex for bidding on me in the Fandom Trumps Hate auction! This is my third and final contribution to the 2019 event.
> 
> All episodes referenced are from season 3 - spoilers beware! Episodes referenced are Miraculer, Kwamibuster, Ladybug, and Miracle Queen (although tbh you don't have to have seen Miracle Queen bc I didn't reference anything that happened in it.) I have changed the order of episodes for this universe, such that Miraculer comes before Ladybug. 
> 
> Lastly, shoutout to Adriana for betaing this work for me despite knowing nothing about Miraculous Ladybug. You rock!
> 
> Comments always welcome :)

_Un_

[After _Miraculer_]

On a grey mansard rooftop in Paris, Chat Noir and Ladybug traded blows. After that last villain encounter – which had been a disaster in Chat’s opinion – they sorely needed the practice, especially him. And his lady was a tricky opponent, slipping out of his grasp and lightly breaching his defences again and again. Chat was beginning to be quite badly winded, but he continued grimly on, lashing out at her with both claws and feet. When she slipped away again, Chat let out an animal growl of pure frustration, forgetting all his experience had taught him about fighting and just swinging wildly at her.

“Stop, stop!” Ladybug cried, neatly ducking under Chat Noir’s blows. Grabbing his arms, she pinned them to his body, and he finally went limp in submission and folded into his lady’s arms, exhausted.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Ladybug said, and her voice was thick not just with anger, but concern. She had never seen Chat like this before. Chat hardly knew what had come over him himself. He stood, his chest heaving with the exertion, the strange fervour that had come over him draining away until he felt tears come to his eyes and he pressed his face into his lady’s shoulder. A few tears slipped out of the corners of his eyes and trickled down behind his mask before he could make himself calm.

“Chat? What’s wrong?” Now Ladybug sounded deeply worried. “Are you hurt? You seem exhausted. Why wouldn’t you stop fighting me?”

Taking a deep breath, Chat managed, “There’s nothing seriously wrong with me, My Lady.”

She gave him a little shake. “Chat,” she said in a tone that said she’d brook no nonsense from him.

“It’s just... I’m scared,” he admitted, sniffing. Drawing away, he wiped his eyes on the back of his hand, then sank down to the rooftop to sit. Ladybug copied him, sitting down beside him with concern in her lovely blue eyes.

“Of what?” she prompted.

“That I...” Chat closed his eyes. “That I won’t be able to protect you. That I’ll fail! I mean... I already did, that last fight. I fought as long as I could, but it wasn’t enough. You had to come save me instead of fighting Miraculer.” He shuddered, doing his hardest to block out the memory of the searing pain that had filled his stomach and side. It had felt like his organs were liquefied, like his injured flesh was so much cubed meat held together by the black leather skin of his superhero suit. He had never felt pain like that before in his life. If it weren’t for the magic of Chat Noir’s powers, he wouldn’t have even been able to stand.

“Chat, you were cataclysmed,” Ladybug said, sounding horrified and sad. She hesitated, then gently laid her hand over Chat’s side, right where he had been hit. “If anyone should feel like they failed, it’s me. I wasn’t there when you needed _me._ I know akumatised villains’ versions of our powers aren’t as strong as our real powers, but still, you could have died.”

“But I didn’t,” Chat said, flashing her a cheeky grin. Ladybug sighed, withdrawing her hand, but Chat grabbed hold of it and laced their fingers together. Uncharacteristically, she didn’t withdraw her hand from his. Chat was glad. He needed the small comfort of her hand in his, even if it didn’t mean anything – nothing romantic, anyway.

“You didn’t fail, My Lady,” he said. “You were doing your job. And because of you, we won, like we always do. But if I let _you_ get cataclysmed, then Paris could be doomed because of me. I have to be good enough to protect you, no matter what.”

“Fighting until you pass out isn’t going to make you stronger,” Ladybug pointed out seriously.

“Then,” Chat said, looking away, “I don’t know what to do.” Against his will, another tear slipped out, and he shut his eyes tightly to try and hold it back. He hated feeling this way – especially when he was Chat Noir. If Adrien doubted himself, or felt unworthy or worthless, or cried, that was fine, because Adrien was a normal kid in a terrible house who was allowed to have all the negative emotions he wanted. But Chat Noir – he was powerful, and he was free. Someone this funny, charming, and most of all, liberated and alive, should never feel so tired and small and afraid. It wasn’t fair.

Ladybug gave Chat’s hand a gentle squeeze. After a moment of reflection, she said, “It’s okay to make mistakes, Chat. Because if we make a mistake, we’ll fix it. I beat Pixelator with one arm and one leg. We beat Oblivio without our memories, Master Fu said. It doesn’t matter how many times they destroy the Eiffel Tower or the Arc de Triomphe. We’ll never let Hawkmoth get our miraculouses. Anything he does, we can undo. One day, he’s gonna give us _his_ miraculous.”

Hearing his lady talk so confidently was beginning to make Chat feel a little bit better. He opened his eyes again. “Yeah?” he said, sniffing.

“Yeah,” Ladybug said, giving his hand another squeeze. “I trust you, Chat. And…” She bit her lip, but then smiled. “Don’t let it go to your head, but I wouldn’t take any other partner but you.”

At this, Chat couldn’t help but break into a wide smile. “My Lady has good taste,” he said. “After all, I _am_ the best.”

Letting go of his hand, Ladybug gave him a playful punch to the shoulder. “Don’t get conceited, Kitten,” she teased him. Catching sight of his face, she gave a sigh, then started patting her suit as if looking for something. She stopped when she remembered she had no pockets. Her yo-yo lit up and she rummaged around in it, but still couldn’t find what she was looking for.

“Lucky charm!” she cried, holding her arm up to catch a large cloth handkerchief, which was of course red with black spots on it. “Here,” she said, handing it to Chat, “blow your nose, you look a mess.”

For a moment, Chat stared. Then, he burst into gales of laughter, taking the handkerchief in one hand but unable to bring it to his face.

“Thank you, My Lady,” he managed to get out.

Ladybug, suddenly aware of how ridiculous it was to use her lucky charm just to give her partner a tissue, stifled giggles under one elegant hand.

Later that night, Chat returned home and became Adrien again, feeling much better than he had when the day had started. But he resolved to practice his fencing doubly hard from now on, just to make sure that he was strong enough to never let his lady down.

_Deux_

[After _Kwamibuster_]

In the end, the reveal was simple: A preponderance of clues _proved_ Ladybug’s identity, without a shadow of a doubt. After both their Kwami showed up at the same middle school, after Ladybug’s dropped math book from that same class many months ago, Adrien put two and two together and figured it out: Miraculous Ladybug was Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

Initially, Master Fu was going to take Chat Noir’s miraculous, but after Marinette’s triumphant performance as Multi-Mouse, he begrudgingly conceded that if any Ladybug could be trusted to know the identity of her partner during an active supervillain campaign, it was Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Adrien, Master Fu was less sure of. But Ladybug had not lied when she said that she wanted no other partner than _her_ Chat Noir, and argued fiercely in his defence. Master Fu was finally convinced, and both of them kept their miraculouses.

And then Adrien asked Marinette out, and she, fumblingly, agreed. After that day, Adrien mentally blessed Miss Mendeleiev a thousand times for getting herself akumatised.

_Trois_

[After _Ladybug_]

“Marinette?” Adrien said, walking up the stairs to Marinette’s bedroom. He opened the hatch and looked in to see her sitting with elbows on her desk, glaring at her computer. “Marinette?”

As she glanced over at him, Marinette’s frown deepened, and Adrien gulped and almost stepped down and let the door close over his head again. But she just said, “You know you can come in,” then turned back to the screen.

She seemed stressed, and Adrien could guess why. In fact, he had come expecting it. Entering the room, he came over to the desk and set a mug of hot chocolate for her down, and a plate of her parents’ croissants for himself. He knew she had already eaten cake earlier with her family to celebrate her reinstation to the College Françoise Dupont, but he figured a comforting warm beverage would not go amiss at that moment.

“You okay?” he asked, pulling up a chair and sitting down beside her, careful to maintain a respectful distance in case she wanted some space.

Marinette sighed, giving him a sidelong glance. “Well, I’m not expelled anymore,” she said, turning away again. She generally didn’t look at him when speaking to him – remnants of her old anxiety still lingered, even though they’d been dating for a few weeks now, and not making eye contact seemed to help her.

Adrien was so happy he was dating his lady that he only minded that a little bit. What really bothered him was that although he knew everything there was to know about Ladybug, he didn’t know everything there was to know about Marinette, so he wasn’t sure of the best way to comfort her now.

“Are you mad about Lila…?” Adrien said, half-dreading the answer. That riverbank shoot was just an ordinary modelling job to him, but he knew those photos he had taken with Lila wouldn’t look good to Marinette.

An expression of pure fury crossed Marinette’s face and her fists clenched as if she were strangling thin air. _Bingo_, thought Adrien. “Did she _do_ something to you?” Marinette demanded.

“Uh, what kind of thing?” Adrien asked, because Lila _had_ put her hands all over him for the photoshoot – it had been necessary – but of course Marinette could still take it as an insult to their relationship, god forbid –

“Did she threaten you or try to manipulate you?” Marinette said, and when she turned to him Adrien saw that her eyes were full of not anger, but worry. “I mean, did she _hurt_ you?”

Adrien blinked. He was not used to being this fully trusted or cared for, and that stung him to the core even as he was bathed in gratitude for Marinette’s concern. Trying to make light of his tumultuous feelings he said, “Aww, Maribug, I didn’t know you cared.”

“What is that supposed to mean? Of course I care,” Marinette said, hunching her shoulders in dismay.

Adrien winced, and hastened to answer her question honestly, not knowing what else to do. “Lila didn’t do anything to me. I convinced her to get your expulsion overturned by telling her we were friends. Don’t worry, okay? Between the two of us and our secret alliance –” (their secret relationship) “– we’ve got Lila under control.”

Marinette flashed him a small smile, but it was wan.

“Something else eating you?” Adrien asked, nudging the mug of still-steaming hot chocolate a little closer to her hand.

Marinette chewed her lip, but then, looking miserable, she said, “Didn’t you see me almost get akumatised? I was _taking off my earrings_! If it hadn’t been for – whatever happened – I guess Mayura – I would’ve just _given_ them to Hawkmoth!”

Adrien could picture it happening, but the thought didn’t daunt him as much as it should have. Knowing Ladybug’s true identity meant knowing who to go to for help if Ladybug didn’t – or couldn’t – appear. Even if she didn’t have her miraculous, Marinette was still Ladybug to him. Only if Marinette herself were incapacitated would Adrien begin to think about panicking. And becoming akumatised didn’t count as being incapacitated. Adrien had faith that Chat Noir could get an akuma out of someone on his own, even if he couldn’t purify it.

“Woah, hey,” Adrien said, taking Marinette’s clenched fist in his hand. “Didn’t you say once that we could fix any mistake?”

“I know, but this would’ve been huge and it should’ve been avoided,” Marinette wailed. “If Chloé can resist getting akumatised, why can’t I?”

“Well... it was one of those scarlet butterflies, right? The super powerful ones that can get more than one person at once? Chloé just had a regular akuma.” Adrien put his other hand on top of Marinette’s and gently teased her tense fingers apart. As he did so, Marinette’s agitation began to calm.

“That’s true, but I’m _Ladybug_. I’m supposed to be better than this.” At that, her shoulders squared, her slim fingers uncurling fully between Adrien’s palms as she thought for a moment. “I’m going to ask Master Fu if there are some exercises I can do to protect my mind from akumatisation. And if he doesn’t know of any, I’m going to invent them myself.”

“If you do them, I’ll do them too,” Adrien said loyally. “Hey, if something like that exists, we should put it on TV. Maybe then people in Paris wouldn’t get akumatised so much!”

Marinette smiled, interlacing her fingers with Adrien’s and flushing. “Thanks, kitty,” she said.

_Quatre_

[Days after _Miracle Queen_]

The night air was warm on Marinette’s balcony as she and Adrien lay in the folding chair together and looked up at the darkening sky. The chair was barely big enough for both of them, so they lay intertwined with Marinette’s head on Adrien’s shoulder. Paris’s busy streets were a low rumble of background noise, and the air was scented with exhaust, flowers from the rooftop plants, and the wholesome bread-and-pastry scent that continually filled the air around the Dupain-Cheng bakery.

Adrien was content. In real danger of being discovered sneaking out, since he did it on a weekly basis now just to be with Marinette, but content. All danger and trouble were as far from his mind in that moment as Pluto was from the Sun.

Presently, there was a lull in the conversation, and Marinette let out a deep sigh, and not a particularly happy one. Glancing down in consternation, Adrien saw that she was frowning, and he frowned back in concern. After a moment Marinette disentangled herself from him and sat on the edge of the chair, still looking downcast.

“Adrien,” she began in a tone that didn’t bode well. “There’s something I’ve been thinking about. Do you ever… regret that we found out each other’s identities?”

Adrien started in dismay. “Do _you_?” he said sadly, anticipating her answer.

Marinette glanced back at him, shaking her head. “I feel bad that we broke the guardians’ rule of secrecy, but… No. I don’t regret it.” Adrien let out an internal sigh of relief, but was still unsettled by the topic of the conversation – what had brought this on?

Continuing, Marinette said, “I _can’t_ regret it when it means I get to be with you. You know, you’re… just as perfect as I always thought you would be.” She smiled shyly, and Adrien felt his heart swell with joy. “E-even if you _do_ say dumb stuff as Chat Noir,” Marinette added, and then was silent for a time, looking over the edge of the balcony at the distant lights of Notre Dame.

“But me?” she said at last. “Aren’t you a little bit disappointed it was _me_?”

Even more confused now, Adrien said, “Never, of course not. You’re Ladybug. There was no way I wasn’t going to love you. Even if you were a girl I never met before in my life.”

“But I’m not just Ladybug,” Marinette said, finally getting to the heart of the problem, “I’m also clumsy Marinette who’s hopeless and who can’t get out one sentence around you without stuttering!”

Adrien grabbed Marinette’s hand and gave it a gentle squeeze for reassurance. “You’re smart, and clever, and capable, and strong. And being Marinette doesn’t change that, it only makes it more true. I’ve seen you pretend to be clumsier than you are to hide your identity. You turn all your weakness into strengths, and if I didn’t know you were Marinette, I would never get to see that side of you. I’m lucky I get to know the truth and I wouldn’t change it for anything.”

Blushing, Marinette ducked her head shyly, and Adrien took advantage of the opportunity to kiss the back of her hand, as he’d always tried to do as Chat. In return she pulled their clasped hands towards her and gave the back of his hand a kiss in turn, which never failed to make Adrien melt.

“What brought all this on, Maribug?” he had to gently ask. “Did I do something wrong?”

“Well...” Marinette said, “I know you liked dating Ladybug, but I wasn’t sure how you felt about everything else.”

“Why not?”

“You said being Chat Noir is when you can be yourself, right? But when you’re around me as Adrien, even when it’s just the two of us, you don’t make that many puns. It’s been months, and you still are so...” she flushed, “calm, I guess? Less cheesy than I expected you to be? So I thought maybe you weren’t really happy…”

“I’m happy if you’re happy, My Lady,” Adrien said so decisively that Marinette just stared at him. Adrien recognised that look. It meant Marinette was floored in the best possible way.

“I – and! But – If am I you – mean that sure you mean – augh!” she stammered out, then hid her face in her hands. “I _mean_,” she said slowly, taking a deep breath but still not looking at him, “are you sure you really mean that?”

“Yes. I really am, My Lady,” Adrien said, and Marinette’s body sagged in relief. “But tell me...” Adrien raised an eyebrow. “You really miss my puns _that_ much?”

“Absolutely not!” Marinette exclaimed, correctly reading the way this conversation was going. Adrien just grinned like a cat that had stolen the cream.

“I’m _purrfectly_ relaxed around you, Bugaboo, but if _mew_ want me to _purrove_ it—” Adrien managed to get out, and then Marinette had snatched a nearby pillow and shoved it in his face. It muffled his voice as he broke into gales of laughter at her reaction.

“Bad kitty!”

Adrien pushed the pillow aside and gave Marinette another one of those big kitty grins. “Ah, but I’m _pawsitive_ you love me.”

How could she have doubted for a second that Adrien wouldn’t follow her forever? She was his partner in both war and love. It was the two of them against the world, and with her at her side he would never be afraid.

Marinette shoved the pillow at his face again, but she didn’t try to deny it. “I do l-love you, you stupid cat,” she said, blushing furiously. Adrien pulled Marinette to him, and the pillow dropped away. He caught just a flash of her beautiful blue eyes, and then she was kissing him – soft and earnest but best of all, _sure_.

**Author's Note:**

> The title and a few references in the fic come from the song [_Toi Et Moi Contre Le Monde Entier_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZukJhGxNt5k) by Claude François:
> 
> C’est toi et moi contre le monde entier  
(_It's you and me against the entire world_)  
Toi seul à mes côtés, comprenant mes tristesses  
(_Only you at my side, understanding my sorrows_)  
Tu es l’ombre de ma peine, le chagrin de mon chagrin  
(_You are the shadow of my sadness, the grief of my grief_)
> 
> Oui, toi et moi contre le monde entier  
(_Yes, you and me against the entire world_)  
Et tes soldats de bois, et tes armés entiers  
(_And your wooden soldiers, and your entire armies_)  
Je te vois gagner la guerre et je n'ai plus peur de rien  
(_I foresee you winning the war and I'm no longer scared of anything_)


End file.
